


Birds of a Feather

by ScarletGunnerPuppy



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: F/F, Fluff, something that had to have happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 03:46:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4376009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletGunnerPuppy/pseuds/ScarletGunnerPuppy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dealing with the military school proves to be as awful as one would expect, but to survive it sometimes one has to make the best of what they've got. Sometimes something that seems trivial can mean so much more than it appears at first glance. That's what Riley's counting on. She just wants to see Ellie smile brightly in the midst of it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birds of a Feather

“Come ooon, Ellie!” Riley urged with impatient excitement when her friend’s pace slowed, though she dropped back to match it.  
“I’m coming. We literally have all night though, so I don’t get why you’re all worked up,” Ellie grumbled while rubbing at her eyes. She’d been just about to drift off to sleep when Riley had pounced on her to retrieve her for this apparently grand mission. Riley hadn’t bothered relaying the details of their destination, and Ellie liked to know where she was going.  
“So grouchy,” chided Riley with a smirk. “It’s not even midnight, but if you can’t handle a big girl bed time,” she trailed off and Ellie took the bait.  
“Oh shaddup,” Ellie growled managing to sound like a grumpy bear being roused from hibernation. Riley simply chuckled and a glimmer of fondness found its way into her gaze as she glanced back at her companion.  
The two soon fell into a casual silence and Riley found herself content with the way their footfalls lulled into synchronized rhythm, and despite Ellie’s grumpy disposition her curiosity was beginning to beat out her discontent with being awake after a particularly annoying day of drills. Riley lead Ellie down a surprisingly stable fire escape when they were within a block of her destination, having favored city rooftops as a safer route to take. They approached the end of the alley with caution and paused to scan the surrounding area for danger before stepping out.  
“Fish are cute,” Riley flippantly commented catching Ellie’s eye with a glance to the side.  
“Pff, hell yeah. I would guess they are when they aren’t flaked in a can.”  
“All big eyes and gaping mouths,” Riley added and mimicked the gaping with wide eyes and hands fluttering in imitation of fins at the side of her face.  
“That’s a better fish impression than a fish could do. You really got the absent look down, though I think you do an even better one when you’re not trying,” Ellie quipped, and in response Riley rolled her eyes and nudged her gently. “But what’s up with this fish talk? It’s not like either of us have seen many of ‘em of late.” Ellie eyed Riley oddly, used to Riley being bizarre but nonetheless confused. Riley gasped.  
“Oh, Ellie! Didn’t you see them tap dancing during drills today?”  
“That was pretty fucking weak.”  
“Yeah, pretty,” Riley sighed. “But now we’re here, so blah!”  
“You’re awfully ridiculous tonight.” Ellie looked suspicious; Riley simply grinned.  
“Why thank you,” she replied with a sweeping bow and extended her arm. “Shall we embark on this grand adventure?” Ellie shrugged in response, but linked arms with her nonetheless.  
They rounded the corner arm in arm and Ellie’s eyes widened at the sight of massive trees and hedges.  
“Whoa.”  
“Yeah, whoa. Thoughts?” Riley bit back an expectant grin and settled for a hopeful smile.  
“What’re we waiting for?” and with that Riley lead Ellie into the abandoned and overgrown park.  
The grass tickled their legs as they made their way between trees. Ellie eyed the size of the taller trees with glee. Riley cut through the brush with purpose and Ellie in tow. Suddenly, the trees thinned out into a bit of a clearing, and the two came upon the edge of a large pond. They startled a frog and it leapt into the water with a plop.  
“Wait, froggy, come back!” Ellie squawked, and Riley could only cackle at her distraught expression, which prompted Ellie to descend into a fit of giggles along with her.  
“This is sooo cool,” Ellie remarked and spared Riley a warm grin of gratitude.  
Riley simply beamed and shrugged. “I know my girl.” Ellie snorted but looked no less enamored with it all and the two turned to appreciate the reflection of the full moon on the fairly calm surface of the pond. Ellie turned and began searching around the ground and shortly after returned triumphantly with a stick. She promptly began happily swishing it around the water and poking at this or that. Riley huffed in amusement and shrugged her backpack off her shoulders to prep the second part of her surprise while Ellie remained distracted.  
Ellie worked her way up and down the bank nearby, jumping four more frogs as she went and stopped periodically to poke at the muddy bank with her stick or investigate a hole in the soft ground.  
“Ellie, c’mere,” Riley called from a worn blanket spread across the grass and rummaging through her bag. Ellie stuck the stick in the bank like a flag to claim newly discovered territory and trotted over to where Riley waited. She flopped down on the blanket rather gracelessly and kicked off her well worn boots. Riley pulled two spoons and two cans and from her bag and began working each open with the can opener on her pocketknife. After she had both cans open she offered a spoon to an expectant Ellie. Ellie examined the can labels and a delighted expression came across her face.  
“Holy shit! You got cherry pie filling?” she exclaimed but wasted no time in digging out a huge spoonful and popping it into her mouth. Ellie dramatically fell back with her eyes closed and groaned to emphasize her contentment with the treat. Riley found equal pleasure in just watching her friend’s reaction. Ellie cracked open an eye to glance at Riley when something seemed to dawn upon her.  
“We can’t use the same spoon for the pears and the pie filling,” Ellie noted with a serious tone.  
Riley snorted in mock indignation. “Why not?”  
“Because you just can’t mix them. That’d be an insult to the cherry filling! It’s just wrong.” Ellie snorted in retort. Riley rolled her eyes but couldn’t fight the curling of the corners of her mouth and ended up smiling.  
“Fiiine,” Riley whined and relented. Ellie grinned and scooped another spoonful of cherry filling and held the spoon out to Riley, who blinked at it a few times before making eye contact with the younger teen and raising an eyebrow.  
“You don’t want any?” Ellie asked in a faux blasé manner while feigning innocence. Riley sniffed and tried to steal her frazzled nerves before leaning forward to catch the spoon in her mouth, all the while maintaining eye contact. Ellie fought the urge to shiver, something about it all made sparks jump in her bloodstream. Riley released the spoon and Ellie quickly took another bite of pie filling to obscure her expression. Something in the brush became very interesting and caught Riley’s eye, or more accurately it made it easier to hide her flustered expression.  
The two teens continued to polish off the remaining fruit in a comfortable silence as they took in the overgrown park around them. A rustling broke the calm and both Riley and Ellie jumped to their feet in alarm. The reeds by the pond a few yards down the bank parted and a pair of ducks emerged and glided onto the water. Riley let out a sigh of relief and Ellie promptly collapsed back onto the blanket. With the adrenaline spike fading, Riley found the situation amusing and began to snicker. Ellie’s immediate reaction was to swat at her and wildly gesticulate with one arm and her other with a finger to her lips, which lead Riley to cover her mouth with both hands and nod somewhat seriously. Swishing was audible as the ducks ignored the foolish disturbance. Without much thought, Ellie reached up and tugged Riley down beside her without another word. The two became absorbed in the tranquility of the scene that contrasted so much with their lives. Somehow Ellie came to rest her head on Riley’s shoulder and their hands found themselves clasped, fingers intertwined. Both found themselves suppressing jitters from a spike in heart rate.  
The serenity of it all lead them to relax and they found that the rhythm of their breathing slowed and evened out.  
“I’m cold,” Ellie lied. Riley unzipped and shrugged off her sweatshirt and draped it over Ellie’s shoulders before pulling her into her lap, obviously for warmth. Content with the situation, Ellie began to doze off, loose strands of hair falling over her face. Riley’s focus shifted away from the ducks to her best friend curled into her. Gentle fingers tucked the stray hairs behind Ellie’s ear, and Riley found herself thoroughly enamored with Ellie’s freckles and rather surprised at how unfazed she felt at the almost absurdly cliché nature of the situation. Ellie opened her eyes and Riley thought herself lost in how green they were as she held her gaze.  
“We should just be ducks,” Ellie murmured quietly. Riley might have found it amusing in any other context, but sitting by the pond with Ellie in her arms, looking up at her the way she was, the words carried a strange, unexpected weight.  
“Yeah, that’d be nice,” Riley replied in a hushed tone, not wanting to break the mood.  
“I’d have lotsa colorful feathers,” Ellie added sleepily before yawning.  
“Aren’t those only on the mallards?” retorted Riley with a low, quiet chuckle.  
“Don’t care,” Ellie said simply. Riley was smitten.  
“You do you then.” This time Riley didn’t fight the stupid smile that pulled at her face. Ellie pushed them over so they were sprawling on the blanket, legs tangling, and then burrowed into her shoulder, nose nuzzling against her neck.  
“Thank you,” Ellie mumbled. Riley embraced her and hummed a response. The two enjoyed the peace and the warmth of the shared contact for some time before Ellie broke the quiet again.  
“I love you.” Her voice was quiet and fragile, and Riley wasted no time with a response.  
“I love you too.”  
Soon they would have to part and go back. They’d return to the shitty world that threatened to wrench them apart and whisk them away, probably to an untimely death. For now, Riley was content with the feeling of Ellie’s soft breath ghosting across the sensitive skin of her neck as the younger teen dozed off in her arms. Ellie wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> The Last of Us was simply an excellent game and Ellie just stole my soul. And then the DLC was just too amazing to not inspire me to write something. These'll be my excuses for writing after not writing for ages and abandoning a ton of things. I definitely want to write more with these wonderful characters.


End file.
